Clancy Brown Joins Zac Efron, Dennis Quaid In Ramin Bahrani's Next Drama

Farmer Quaid has found his rival. Clancy Brown, a veteran character actor whose credits include Highlander, The Shawshank Redemption, and this past summer’s Cowboys & Aliens, has been cast opposite Dennis Quaid and Zac Efron in director Ramin Bahrani’s as-yet-untitled drama, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Bahrani has helmed three well-received indie dramas in Man Push Cart, Chop Shop and the award-winning Goodbye Solo. His latest, which once was known as Heartland, casts Quaid as a farmer clashing with his racecar-driving son (Efron) because he’d like the boy to follow in his career footsteps. Brown, according to the trade, plays a rival farmer. The cast, at this moment, rounds out with Heather Graham and Kim Dickens.

In addition to starring in Jon Favreau’s Aliens, Clancy voiced Parallax in the Ryan Reynolds comic book origin story Green Lantern. So Bahrani’s film, no matter what it ends up being titled, sounds like a return to the character work Clancy likes to work on in between blockbusters. Bahrani’s past films have been slow, meditative character studies marked more for their internal dialogue than the explosions and special effects that define projects like Aliens, Lantern and the Highlander series. Quaid, meanwhile, can be seen playing against type in Craig Brewer’s Footloose remake (which really is worth your time when it comes out on Oct. 14), and Efron has The Lucky One, New Year’s Eve and The Paperboy on the horizon. There’s no specific release date for Bahrani’s picture, so look for it sometime in 2012.